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We raced the final round of the 2019 WORCS series this past weekend. This was a two race weekend, for a potential of 50 points to be earned. I qualified P1, and also placed P1 in the main for the short course event. The desert race, I was able to get the hole shot and lead the entire time. With over a minute lead, I had a mechanical failure and was able to finish, but in 6th place. This was a huge disappointment for me and my team, as I was hoping to win the SXS World Championship Trophy. Although with the points gained in the short course event and the desert race, it set us up good in points. I’m excited to have Earned a 2nd place finish for the entire 2019 season of the World Off Road Championship series, in Production 1000 Turbo.

This past race was the Veterans Day Dash held on Nov 2 out in our local Superstition Mountains. The race was scheduled for four 22-mile laps. The hosting club (Full Throttle) setup a real nice high-speed course that incorporated some fun challenging rocky areas behind the mountain.
After a long week of work, we were ambitious to get out to the desert Friday night and set camp for the race the following morning. After hooking the trailer, we were eastbound and arrived at the pit site about two hours later. Unloaded the trailer, cooked some spaghetti, enjoyed the crisp cool air, admired the abundant night stars and went to sleep.

The morning of race day, we woke up bright and early to get the coffee going (we setup a coffee urn at our pit for all who want to try some local Windansea Coffee) and setup our gear on pit road. After watching the bikes take off, we headed over to tech and registration. We passed tech without any issues and signed up for the race. A little after noon they opened up the bomb run testing (the first section of the course where we do the land rush starts) and we did a few passes to figure out the best line to the first corner. After the bomb run testing, we went back to our pit to look the race machine over and make a few minor adjustments. For this race we opted to run with just the driver as the extra weight from the co-driver would harm our overall top speed and bottom us out harder in the whoops. Before the race could officially start, we had to have a drivers meeting. After the drivers meeting, we all got in our UTVs and headed to the starting line. On the start we again had three lines of UTVs ready for a great day of racing. The banner went up and about 2 minutes later the banner dropped and the first line was off in a hurry. After the sweep riders returned, the second line pulled up to the start and again the banner went up and after about 2 minutes the banner again dropped and the second line was off. Now it was our turn to get the race started.

Of the 26 entries, our line had 4 UTV’s competing in the Sportsman class on this day. We lined up far right to get the inside line to the corner and noting the wind was blowing right to left, we’d be clear of the dust on the bomb run. To our left was a RZR900 4-seater, a XP1K 4-seater and a XP turbo 4 seater. Our banner went up, the engines turned off and we waited what feels like an eternity for the banner to drop. As soon as the banner started falling, we cranked out RZR800S and we were off. We were in the lead for about 50 yards and then the two newer higher powered XP1k’s started pulling away. The 900 was door to door with us and it was a battle for the first turn, we had the inside edge and took the first turn before them. Going along the first few miles of race course the 4 seaters showed their wheelbase advantage over the whoops and slowly started edging us. About a quarter of the way into the first lap we passed one of the XP1k racers stopped on the side of the course and we knew we were slowly gaining ground back up on the field. First lap was about getting the feel for the course and where we could go fast the next few laps. Lap 1 we finished in 55 minutes. Our pit crew topped of our fuel and gave water to the driver and after a brief stop we were off for lap 2. Lap 2 we were cooking along much faster, after about 8 miles into lap 2 we came up on the 900 in our class going the wrong way on the course (found out they broke an axle, not once but twice) and we were physically 2nd in class. Lap 2 was feeling good and we improved out lap time by a whole 14 minutes, lap time was 41 minutes. Again, our pit crew went to work fueling the UTV and giving water to the driver. We went out for lap 3. The car felt good and we had the course down and were confident this lap would be as fast if not faster than the laps prior. It was a holiday weekend for the public so there were lots of recreational riders and spectators that would sometimes come on course or intersect the racing path without regard for racers so there were times we had no choice by to slow down. Headed into lap 3 we came upon the first place Sportsman UTV stopped on the side of the course and we were leading our class. After holding the lead for about 20 minutes we were overtaken by the XP1k Turbo car and when we crossed the finish and got the checkers, we finished 2nd in class and 17 of 26 overall for the day. Again, a testament to the support we have from our sponsors and the hard work our crew puts in to prep our 2009 Polaris RZR800S to finish races and beat newer machines race after race. Congrats to Michael Sandoval on the Overall win and Eric Welter for winning our sportsman class.

Laura is back on track after some previous mechanical issues this season with placing 2nd at Glen Helen and 3rd in Taft! Both races scored her great points and puts her in the top 5 of Production Turbo for the championship series!

Brian suffered from a pile up at the bottom of the famous “Talladega” 1st turn at Glen Helen which left his car in limp mode. However, wuth great perseverance he was able to push through the race and finish for some valuable series points. Redemption time was one when we came into Taft hungry for a win! Bad luck struck again when the Taft track was super rough. This left him fighting for a finish after breaking down once again. He’s keeping the points rolling in and looking to break into the top 10 of the pro class in the final DOUBLE POINTS round in Primm in just a few short weeks!

Second place finish in Ridgecrest! After damaging the rear suspension at the Gorman Ridge Rally and with only 2 weekends to re-prep and test the car for the final race of the Ultra4 Western Series championship, I put everything on hold and went to work. The first week was spent taking everything apart, ordering new parts and assessing the damage. Luckily, I had enough spares to get the car together for the first shake down and CVT tuning on Labor day. The ambient temperature was 106 degrees. My truck’s radiator ruptured on the way out to the desert, and my friends diesel over heated on the way home. It was a very long day…The second week, I got my truck fixed and a bunch of new parts installed on the race car. New wheel bearings and hubs, sphericals, heims, reducers, bolts, washers, nylocks everywhere, and some more CVT changes. The final shake down and new belt break in was Sunday the 8th. While backing out to go on my third belt heat cycle, the car made a loud and violent pop. The rear inboard CV had bent it’s retaining ring out of the groove and the CV was bound up. I had 3 evenings after work to fix the problem and prevent it from happening again.

I had to overnight new CV joints, prepped them, then TIG welded the retaining rings into position. Unfortunately, after doing all this and re-assembling the car, one of the axles was still bound and didn’t have any plunge at droop. It’s 12am on a work night and I discover that the transmission is shifted half an inch off center and the rear mount is bent. (from “The Jump” at Gorman Ridge Rally) I actually had spare transmission mounts already, so I loosened, centered and re-tightened the engine and its mounts a few times until the rear of the transmission was centered in the chassis again. With the transmission centered, both rear axles had equal amounts of plunge at droop but it was dangerously tight. I made the decision to use my spare axles that have a few races on them, but were well prepped and I ultimately trusted them more than the current situation. I get them in the car, verify they have a healthy amount of plunge and kill the garage lights at 3am. I get off work Wednesday and put the last few things together to go shake the car down for a 3rd and final time before I pack and leave to Ridgecrest in the morning. Axles are good, suspension is solid, belt is ready, and the CVT just needs one more change. I spend Thursday morning doing the last few little things and double checks to be 100% confident in the car before it rolls onto the trailer. I pack and leave about 6.5 hours later than I wanted to but make it up to the Paddock around midnight.I unload and try out my last CVT change with good results.

Friday is registration, pre-run, and qualifying which made for a long day. The pre-run went very well, while there were no true rock sections, the first 20-ish miles had lots of gotcha’s and very little passing areas. The next 20 miles is all whoops without many dangers, then 10 miles of rally roads and long fast straights. The last 5 miles or so is some of the roughest out there.
The car was perfect after the pre-run, so we took a break and tried to see the qualifying course. The Registration table told us UTVs and stock classes were not qualifying. After asking around the paddock this was the general consensuseven though Ultra4 has qualified ever class at every race for the last 5 years. 90 Minutes before qualifying is supposed to start, the organizers inform all teams that UTVs and Stock classes WILL be qualifying, need to see the course, and get in line. The course is fast and simple, so I know the faster turbo cars will out run me and I will start mid-pack somewhere. Since UTV’s and Stock classes weren’t expecting to qualify, most of us are in the back of the line, the sun is going down as well as the breeze to clear the dust. A car barrel rolls across the finish line, so we lose another 30 minutes for recovery and medical. It’s just about my turn to go, we are waiting 5 minutes between each run to let the dust settle and the sun has set. Luckily I always have a light on my bumper, but once I was headed back towards the sunset, I couldn’t see anything but the contrast of the horizon. Dave Cole still had 45 cars waiting to qualify and had to make a tough call. Anyone in line that thought they could still run a top three time was allowed to do so. The top three times would start each class, followed in order of western series points.
Fortunately, my western series points put me in a great place, 6th off the line. The rest of the evening was spent on logistics with the team and last little things on the car. We were ready and staged by 5:15 am, first Class10 car was off the line at 6am-ish.

We charge off the line into the most stagnant dust I have ever raced in. It just hung in the valleys and didn’t move. My pace was conservative and cars are broken every couple miles. Within 15 miles or so, the series points leader Loren Healy is pulled off and looks badly broken. I continue with my low-risk pace through the first lap, getting fuel and starting my second lap in 5th. Now that the dust is starting to move, I speed up to just under normal race pace, which was about 75% depending on the section. We pass two broken cars from the lead pack and inherit 3rd on the road. The leader is 5 minutes ahead and 4th is 5 minutes behind with half a race left. We get fuel and start our final lap. We had put a few more minutes on 4th and catching the leader wouldn’t change the western championship, so we decide to just maintain our position. That all changed when we were caught by the lead Class 10 car. We quickly got out of the way and two of them went past.At this point the conservative pace became a safety hazard, and we turned on the jets. The car responds very well to maximum attack. This was the best part of the race, throttle to the floor and just steering the car as needed. We caught a couple trucks and jeeps which slowed us down, but Mario noticed the race leader was in the pits with a flat tire! We knew it was very unlikely to catch and pass Jacob Versey, last year’s National champion, in the last 15 miles, but the car felt great so we stayed at 100% through the finish. Finishing just a minute or two behind first.
Backing up my win from last year was never really on my mind until we finished 2nd. I had so many issues leading up to the race, that in a way, this weekend was even more satisfying than last year.
This also means 3rd place in the Ultra4 Western Championship and 5th place going into the Nationals race next month!
The car is still in great shape, I have some work to do before Nationals, but I will be ready to fight for another podium.

Scott LeSage

I’ve wanted to race a stage rally since I was a kid. I entered last year, but lost a motor on the first stage of the Gorman Ridge Rally. This year, the race would be the first one of the season after a summer break to prepare the car.

After the Ultra4 race in Mexico, the car was slowly overhauled. I had the motor gone through again by Alba. The front differential housing was cracked, so I upgraded to a turbo diff and the RCV axlesto match. I put my short course shock/spring set up on the car, broke in the new motor and I was ready to rally! One thing loomed over me though, I needed to find a co-driver. Both of my usual navigators fell through, so I had to find some one local, available, with safety gear and navigation experience. The rally organizers started calling everyone who had taken the co-drivers training course in the last three years. They found a perfect match just 3 days before the rally, Steven Winnat, an experienced navigator from the American Rally Association.
Day one is Recce (stage reconnaissance), we drove all the stages in the order we would race them and he adjusted the pace notes to our liking. Many of the stages at this rally have tight corners and exposed cliffs, so the notes are critical to staying on the road. Steve was very professional and focused, I was glad to have such an experienced navigator on these technical stages.
Race day. There were about 25 entries and 3 UTVs. The UTVs had to be escorted on the road between certain stages so they had us together in the back. The only Turbo UTV at the event was driven by Stephan Verdier. He holds many stage records set at this rally, so they had to give the last car a 5 minute gap before they sent the UTVs. Finishing the first stage with a confidence building pace was a huge relief for me. Then the second stage went well too, and I was starting to build trust in myself, the notes, and the car. Stage three was a repeat of stage one, so I upped the pace. About mid stage I slid outside on a left 3 off camber and had to correct, steering off the road and bushwhacking to re-enter the course a turn later. That rattled my confidence and the danger of stage rallies became real.The next few stages were fun and fast, and we continued to work on our communication and timing. Calling the notes too late, can surprise the driver and risk a crash. Calling the notes too early can get confusing and you can “loose the notes” if there are similar calls in quick succession. This happened on a fast part of stage 6, with many straights, slight turns and bumps. We lost the notes and I came into a right 3 too hot and went into the bushes again. Luckily it was fast and easy to get back on the road and find the notes again.

During the long lunch time service, we learned we were 4th overall in the rally by just a few seconds! The final 4 stages were the most exposed technical stages of the rally, and a very good opportunity for UTV’s to make up time on the true rally cars. We ran a quick, but conservative pace which I was confident would finish the rally and likely podium until “The Jump”…..
It looked tame during Rece, and I jump the car all the time, but I underestimated how fast I would be going at race pace. The jump LAUNCHED the car about 140 feet. Pitching and rotating slowly in the air, landing, then becoming airborne again as we bounced further down the road. The photographers told me later that they had never seen a car go even half that far. Unfortunately, the compression broke a shock and bent a few other things. I was able to drive out of the stage, but decided to admit defeat and get the trailer instead of trying to limp the car through the rest of the stages risking further damage.

I had a great time and learned so much at my first real rally, I am excited to try again next year and fight for a podium finish.

The Speedwerx-TraLo Motorsports short course team traveled to “The Big House”, the legendary Crandon International Off Road Raceway in Crandon, Wisconsin for the first two rounds of the 2019 Lucas Oil Midwest Short Course League.

Things got off to a bit of a soggy start on Friday when the rains came and washed out all of the day’s scheduled practice sessions. The wet and muddy conditions also forced the cancellation of Saturday’s qualifying sessions so the Round 1 race lineups were set by random draw. Jeremy Houle #54 would get the 14th starting position and Joe Dresel #101 started 26th on the grid in the Pro Stock SXS main event. Starting deep in thefield without turning a lap isn’t an ideal scenario, but both drivers were determined to march forward in the short 10 lap race. The green flag dropped and both drivers went to work, powering through the pack despite both mud and dust causing some visibility issues. When the checkered flag dropped, Jeremy had turned the fasted lap time of the race and passed 12 cars to finish in 2nd, simply running out of time to catch the leader. Joe made the best of his start near the back of the pack, passing 9 cars to finish 15th.
Sunday’s Round 2 racing went off as scheduled with a morning qualifying session to set the lineup for the afternoon main event. Jeremy would post the 3rd fastest lap time in qualifying and line up 4th after the inversion draw, while Joe would start in the 23rd position. Jeremy capitalized on his starting position up front and powered to the lead before the competition caution midway through the race, and Joe was fighting for positions in the pack. Jeremy led the pack back to the green, but the competition caution had erased his lead and he was being challenged for the lead. One small mistake was all it took to relinquish that lead- he battled back and pulled alongside the leader, but was unable to complete the pass and had to settle for 2nd once again. Joe passed a number of cars to finish in the 15th position, gaining valuable seat time as it’s his Rookie Pro season.

The first Ultra4 Race in Mexico lived up to expectations. Racing in San Felipe, Mexico has benefits and challenges not present at races in the US. Some of the benefits are the awesome food, and untouched rugged terrain. The challenges are logistics and lack of resources. Teams are truly self-sufficient and forced to be extra resourceful in Mexico.
My truck, the racecar and two other team members drove down Wednesday to get settled and set up more wheel/tire/balls before pre-running on Thursday. We had an awesome house in a gated community, not far from the ocean or the race course. Another truck, UTV and two team members arrived Thursday morning and we began our pre-run. The course was a 22 mile loop of classic San Felipe terrain with new rock sections that had never been driven before. Having two UTVs pre-running together was very beneficial because we could try multiple lines and mark our favorites quickly. I ran the challenging rock sections alone because they were too much for a brand new Wildcat XX to smash through. They wound through untouched canyons of rocks that allowed some creativity in line choice, and those lines would change and break in with each passing car.We finished our lap and focused on the qualifying loop. The qualifying loop was about 2 miles around a rock quarry with rocky hill climbs, drops and technical desert.

Friday morning another chase truck and 3 more people arrived. Qualifying was Friday afternoon, so I got to practice the lap a couple times, re-fined my lines and found some new ones. I put down a near perfect lap with one mistake that might have actually saved some time. I cut a corner by dropping off a ledge instead of slowing down for the berm. However, I carried more speed than I was anticipating and had to blow the end of the corner. Now off course but pointing the right way, I saw enough gap through the trees and decided to try it. I finished the lap with tree branches in the cockpit, but hit the rest of my marks and ended up on the pole by 0.007 seconds faster than Loren Healy. On the way home, I noticed one of the front axles had broken during qualifying. The rest of the evening was spent repairing the front end and preparing the car for the morning race.
Starting in the front is not ideal for me. I like to follow the lead pack and let them race each other until I can pick them off when it spreads out. We ran our pace and let a few of the fast cars pass us. Another front axle broke in the rocks, but I didn’t fully realize it until that tire needed to climb a steep rock and we got stuck. My Co-driver was able to pull on the winch line while I worked the steering wheel and rocked back and forth. A couple cars went past us before we got moving again, but we finished the rock trail and the rest of the race in 2wd. Similar to KOH, the car does amazingly well in the rocks even in 2wd. I just have to keep momentum up and let the suspension and tires do the work. On laps 2 and 3 I actually caught and passed multiple cars in the rocks because of the speed required to get through each section. We caught and passed a couple more cars in the desert, finishing physically 5th and 7th on corrected time.
I was happy to finish but a sense of disappointment was still present because the team knows how fast and capable the car, Mario and myself can be. I am currently 4th in Western Series points with Ridgecrest still in September. After winning Ridgecrest last year, expectations and preparation will be higher than ever.
This summer I plan on finding a solution to my axle problems, doing some recreational rock crawling, and competing in the Gorman Ridge Rally.

60 miles south of Nashville the smell of race fuel and high horse powered vehicles gather for the first Ultra4 Eastern race for the 2019 National Racing season. Adventure Off-Road Park is where thousands of hills, trees, rocks, streams, trees, mud, waterfalls and more trees. This will be the proving grounds for the first race of the season. Leave your clean clothes behind, because this weekend’s calling for rain.

Prerun: Getting a feel for the weather and course we set out for a few laps of the 4 mile course. Joining us this race was Tom Woods Custom Driveshafts Shawn Woods. Tom Woods Custom Driveshafts has been a huge part of our success from the beginning with providing drivelines for the 4570 without failure to this day! With Shawn no stranger to off-road, we blazed down the short course and embarked into the tree filled woods to mark the course. Being a new off-road park we were raving at, Course workers were still cutting the course to widen the trail and creating more path options for the uphill climbs. Steep muddy hill climbs is the Tennessee standard. Rutted out from the 4400 vehicles we had no choice but to winch at the top. When the car died at the winch pull, we knew we had an issue. Finishing the full lap we inspected the car and found a faulty alternator. With a quick swap, we were back on track ready to qualify
Qualifying:While the team was wrenching on the car. Ultra4 allowed a parade lap to see the qualifying course. Thanks to Shawn Rants from Mutnut Racing, we hopped in the co-driver seat to see what we were up against. With the car back together we took the green flag in qualifying. Weaving through the trees and rocks we barreled down the course. Coming down the last section of the course we slid off track forcing us into the tree line shearing off a steering component. Limping across the finish line we endedour qualifying run in the very back, 13th. Having spare parts in the trailer we were in good hands with crew working double time to make race day.

Race Day: The smell of race fuel was in the air, it was racecar. With rain coming in from the east racing conditions would change drastically. Lap one set in for traffic jams as the slick east coast mud slid cars off course causing bottlenecks. It was a game of winching and the fastest through the uphill climbs. Big thanks to Voodoo Offroad for the indestructible winch line spooling us up each slick slope lap after lap. After fighting our way through traffic and stuck vehicles we were out of the woodsheaded towards the short course. Lap after lap the rain came and the course got worse and worse. More cars mangled in the trees and broken down. Noticing a break issue, we hopped out to see a pinched line. Capping it off we were going to fight the downhillsof the course. Coming down a steep drop we had little stopping power causing us to take a tough line around large rocks and found ourselves wedged between a rock and a hard place. Using the winch and the aid of Rob Matzell we were back on course. Setting a slower pace feeling the loss of brakes along with steering gremlins unforeseen from qualifying, the laps continued until the checker flag waived.
Results: After dealing with mechanical issues and failures through the weekend, starting 13th off the line, we crossed the finish in 5th place. With not one flat BFGoodrich tire all day long our Daystar powered LJ pushed from the back of the pack to the front with a top 5 finish. Setting the pace for the series this puts us in 2nd place for the point series for Ultra4. With San Filipe up next, we will be ready! After ending a week in Moab for EJS, its back to the grind for the next race.